Just a Note...

A new session of Glorious Church will begin again after the New Year. Our Bible study will continue each Wednesday, starting on January 9, 2008.

Please plan to join us @ 10:30 at my home in Warren as we study several chapters in the Gospel of John.

Meanwhile, have a joyous Christmastime as the Lord pours out His love on you and your families.

Love, Karen

The Greatest is Love Because God is Love

Our study of 1 Corinthians 13 has explained many traits - patience, humility, courtesy, and generosity, to name a few - and we have determined that each one is a practical expression of love.

"...but the greatest of these is love."

Now that we are at the end of our journey through the chapter, we are told that even among the virtues that endure, love is the greatest. There is a wonderful reason why the Scriptures describe love as the one greatest virtue, and it can be found in the following Bible verses. Let us read carefully and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts.

1 John 4:7-16, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

Love is the great motivator behind what God did for us. As each of us reflects upon God's involvment in our lives today, we see that love continues to be the reason for His work in us. Because God loves us, we are able to love.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your love. Thank You for teaching me about Your love. Help me to practice what I have learned. Let my motivation be love. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Faith, Hope, and Love Will Remain

1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

We don't often use the word abide in our everyday conversation, so let our study begin by taking a close look at abiding and what it means to us today. If someone asks you where you live, they mean something like, "Where do you carry on your life?" or "Where is the place in which you dwell?" "Where do you abide?"

In our verse, Paul characterizes the qualities of faith, hope, and love as those that have a place to stay. They have a dwelling place, and the three endure until the end. The transient things of this world will one day vanish forever. However, faith, hope, and love will remain. They will continue. They will stand. They will live.

But...Where do faith, hope and love live?

Our Lord Jesus dwells in each of His children. He abides in us and by His grace supplies us with the faith we need to believe and to obey Him; He pours hope into our lives that we might see with joyful expectation our home in Heaven; and He lavishes His love upon us so that we might love Him and love others.

Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Colossians 1:27, "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Ephesians 3:14, 16-19, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Pray this Prayer

Lord Jesus, since faith, hope, and love will endure until the end, let them dwell in me. Let me live in a manner that others will see You. To glorify you is all that I desire. Amen.